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August Radio Ratings
- Thread starter Dr Wayne
- Start date
Seems a year or so ago....WTMX was at the top of the ratings. Seems to have slipped a bit overall 6+
Anything going on at that station? Or did they just have their day in the sun...and now people have moved on?
Thoughts?
In 25-54, they have been 1st, 2nd or 3rd for the last year. Right now they are 2nd, right behind WOJO which moved up nicely from a tie for second to first. WTMX is up from July by a bit, and well within their actual share range. They are also second in 18-49, again right behind the leader, WOJO.
Seems to me the discussion should be around why a station that lists its format as "regional Mexican" is #1 in two major sales demos in a market not even remotely close to Mexico. What does this say about the rest of the stations in the market, the use of traditionally rated radio in that market, and the presentation of this format at this station. There are markets with a higher percentage of Mexicans where the Regional Mexican station is not #1. I'm not sure what this says.
"Regional Mexican" is an unfortunate name put on the country music of México by non-Hispanic US record retailers long ago. The name has nothing to do with the distance from México... it just refers to a style. The format, in Spanish, is called "grupero" which literally means "of groups (of musicians)".
In the markets where Hispanics are not highly assimilated yet*, we see Spanish language 25-54 shares that are equal to approximately half of the percentage of the market that is Hispanic. Chicago is 23% Hispanic, and there are about 12 Spanish language shares.
Houston has about 42% Hispanic population in 25-54, and there are 21 to 22 Spanish language shares in the market.
Chicago has one full class B, two rimshot B's and an A. Four significant FM signals. Houston has 2 C's, a C0 and a C1 in the market, plus 3 rimshot C's. So none is absolute #1 all the time, although KLTN wanders from 5th to 1st in each book. KLOL is in the top 10, and KOVE is in and out of the top 10.
So no one Spanish language station is always #1 in Houston, but instead of a 4-way ratings battle, it is a 7-way split so each station shares with more other stations. Similar comparisons can be made with Dallas, LA, Phoenix, etc.
Anecdotally, I've found that Chicago Mexican origin Hispanics, being farther from Mexico and in a very different climate and lifestyle environment, tend to be much more tightly attached to those things that remind them of their heritage. This has come out in countless research projects I have done in Chicago over the last several decades.
* High assimilation markets are ones like San Antonio, Corpus, El Paso, the LRGV and Albuquerque.
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Still, this one radio station is beating every other station in Chicago in the demos that most matter. Is this one station so incredibly good at what it does, are the other stations not working hard enough, or does it not matter at all? And how long has WOJO been winning?
You say Chicago is 23% Hispanic, but it's not even the second largest ethnic group in the city. But it is the most cohesive. Cohesion is an incredible element in creating a mass audience. It's why all talk radio is conservative. Conservatives are more cohesive than liberals, moderates, or anything else. It appears to be more cohesive in Chicago than anywhere else, including New York and LA.
Chicago is 17% African American, so Hispanics are the largest ethnic groups of the two that are used as a stratification variable in Nielsen.
WJOO is a full facility on the Hancock. The other two B's are rimshots, and the A is very partial coverage.
New York Hispanics are extremely non-cohesive. Puerto Ricans, Dominicans, Colombians, Ecuadorians and Mexicans are the biggest groups, with none being the majority (although Dominicans are around 40% alone in the sales demos) and each having a greater or lesser degree of differences in musical taste. There are varying degrees of assimilation, with Puerto Ricans in 25-54 being almost entirely second or even third generation.
LA has a higher percentage of second, third generation and beyond than Chicago among Mexican heritage. It has a much much higher percentage of immigrants from the larger cities of Mexico who prefer pop / reggaetón based formats; the two top Hispanic stations are AC and CHR, not Regional Mexican.
So in Chicago you have the only full signal in a format that has a much higher partisan group in that market than in LA. And compared to New York, where there are fewer than 20% Mexicans in the demo, there is no basis for judgement. The real difference in Chicago is the small number of stations and the lack of competitive signals.
And, besides all that, WOJO is a really good radio station.
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And that was really what I was asking, given my lack of knowledge in that format.
"Regional Mexican," I believe, was meant to indicate that the genres played are from different regions of Mexico. Distance from Mexico is something, as an English speaker, that I'd never think of the phrase as implying. Obviously, the norteno genre originated in northern Mexico. So are other genres tied to other specific geographical regions of the country? If so, why the reflexive outrage/regret over the industry term every time someone mentions it?
And when I brought up distance from Mexico, it wasn't because of the listed format's name, but because of basic geography and sociological migration patterns.
Obviously, I'm biased. My involvement with 105.1 goes back to the license renewal cross filing in the early 80's!
As of today, banda and norteña make up the bulk of the music. While 50 years ago, each represented a different area of Mexico, that has not really been true for several decades.
The origin of the name comes from non-Hispanic record retailers who did not understand the different types of music. They could not label the album display divider cards. So they ended up putting all the grupera music together in one section of the store and calling it "Regional Mexican". The record business adopted the term, as their job is moving product and when retail was all there was, they did what the retailers wanted.
The term is not used in Mexico. It's sort of like "Hispanic", another invented term used to describe, together, people who have a range of differences as great as that between a Samoan and a Liberian. I've been asked in many places in South America what "that term Hispanic" means... it's not a correct usage, but it's gradually and somewhat apprehensively being accepted.
Many US cities with many Mexican immigrants have predominantly people from one state or area of Mexico. NYC Mexican immigrants are mostly from Puebla. LA residents are from Jalisco, Guanajuato, Michoacan and the smaller adjacent states. Houston draws from the states from San Luis Potosí up to Nuevo León, while Dallas has more from Chihuahua and Coahuila.
So there is a great sense of "belonging to the group" almost as if, in a sci-fi novel, a town from Mexico had been picked up and relocated to somewhere in the US. WOJO does a very good job, and has for decades, at appealing to the community identity.
Think of it as if it were country from another country. I've done country, and done Regional. The loyalty to the music and the brand, the responsiveness of the listeners, the bonding with talent and the artists, is very similar.
WOJO's success is hardly difficult to discern. The only really good signal serving a large group in a major market. The surprise is that it generated so much discussion.
The fact that a TV station can hold #7 in a market of this size shows the large appetite for genuine AC programming. No one needs to say, for the umpteenth time that the format isn't demo friendly. That much is obvious. Also obvious is the fact that ad revenue can be realized from the format. It's not as if Weigel is spending a truckload to program the station either.
One might think that WSCR would be doing even better than it is with the Cubs success, but then the fact that an AM is doing this well is a testament to the power of carrying a successful MLB team.
The jump WGN-AM had last month appears to be a blip.
The fact that a TV station can hold #7 in a market of this size shows the large appetite for genuine AC programming. No one needs to say, for the umpteenth time that the format isn't demo friendly. That much is obvious. Also obvious is the fact that ad revenue can be realized from the format. It's not as if Weigel is spending a truckload to program the station either.
One might think that WSCR would be doing even better than it is with the Cubs success, but then the fact that an AM is doing this well is a testament to the power of carrying a successful MLB team.
The jump WGN-AM had last month appears to be a blip.
Here is Feder's take!
https://www.robertfeder.com/2018/09...2018/09/05/chicago-radio-ratings-crowded-top/
https://www.robertfeder.com/2018/09...2018/09/05/chicago-radio-ratings-crowded-top/
I am sure that every station is just about the same ratings as they were for the previous month
One morning show that always at the top of the ratings is the one that is with Eric Ferguson, Melissa McGurren and Brian “Whip” Paruch, they have always done well with or without Kathy Hart, if they ever fell to 2nd place then I would be very surprised.
The FrankenFM has an average of 23,000 12+ listeners. It has 12,000 over 65, and just 3700 between 25 and 54. SO it has a bit over 7,000 55-65 listeners.
Unless the rates are low and packages bring them lower, they wont find much advertising coming their way,
There is no appetite for the format among the age groups that advertiser want today..
Interesting that WUSN's Stylez & Roman have not made much of an impact in morning drive. They had more success in afternoons at B96. One of their selling points was their connection to the Cubs and Wrigleyville. That apparently hasn't translated. I'd suggest weakness in morning drive is holding back performance of the station as a whole.
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